Special Feature

Planning Commission “Dynamics”

October 16th, 2014

graphic of yes and no buttons.We wanted to get a sense of how our planning commissioner respondents felt about how well their commission functions as a body, and how prepared members are for meetings.

The results show that a large majority of our respondents have a positive view of interactions on their planning commission, with 84% agreeing that their commission is collegial body where members and staff work well together. Also noteworthy that 94% indicate that most members of their commission listen to each others’ views, and that 87% say that members give a lot of weight to staff recommendations.

The results show that a large majority of our respondents have a positive view of interactions on their planning commission.

The responses below are also consistent with responses to our questions about what skills planning commissioners believe are most important to their job, and what’s most important in running an effective public meeting or hearing.

As you’ll note in our summaries of the responses to those questions, listening, showing respect, doing your homework before meetings, were widely acknowledged as very important to being an effective planning commissioner.

Here’s what we asked:

The following are a series of “yes/no” questions about what we’d call “planning commission’s dynamics.” Some call for subjective responses or ask you to give a response to the best of your knowledge.

 Questions:

Yes

No

Most members of the commission listen to each others’ views.

94%

6%

Most members give a lot of weight to staff recommendations (assuming your staff makes recommendations on applications).

87%

13%

Our commission is a collegial body where members and staff work well together.

84%

16%

There is a high amount of turnover among planning commissioners.

22%

78%

Most members of our commission do their homework before meetings.

76%

24%


In Our Next Post: Holding Effective Public Meetings